Custom Cabinet Doors and Bounding Box Wonk

[MollyNDG]

Hi all,

I’ve been using custom countertops with moldings to build cabinet door profiles, then dropping those in as side panel - inset on wall cabinets (shoutout to @MarkMc for this concept, it's great). It works perfectly for most of my custom doors.

Every now and then though, I need an inset door with a face frame bead, and I’m trying to fold that into the same setup.

What I’m attempting:

• Add another molding to the countertop
• Offset it to account for the cabinet face frame

I can get it to work for a specific cabinet size by tweaking the bounding box spacing, but as soon as the cabinet size changes, things go sideways—the panel stretches oddly and the proportions get thrown off.

So I’m guessing I’m missing something about how bounding box spacing or sizing planes are behaving here.

Anyone have a good way to make this setup truly dynamic, so the inset panel and bead stay consistent when the cabinet resizes?

Appreciate any ideas—thanks!

FACE FRAME BEAD TEST DOOR.calibz WORKING 2.0.plan

[MarkMc]

To control the proportions as the size change you need to use stretch ZONES not the bounding box. Zones are set at two points, stretching will only happen between those points. Check in the help.

A number of years agon several of us attempted to do beaded inset cabinets making the beads part of the door. We abandoned that as too many separate doors were needed. After a lot of work I eventually developed a system for beaded inset that works with any door. The beads are not part of the door symbol but become part of the cabinet. I sell those plans. 

I won't be replying to this for a bit, have to take my wife to cardiac rehab tomorrow.

[GeneDavis]

Here is a 5-piece door I made with solids for the perimeter and a countertop with perimeter molding for the center.  The molding emulates a 30 degree cope/stick detail.  The kitchen in the pic also has this detail for all the lower drawerfronts, with a separate symbol used for those.  See the stretch zones?  I included a catalog cut from Walzcraft to show what I used as a reference, the cut showing one of their many many door profiles.

[MollyNDG]

13 hours ago, MarkMc said:

To control the proportions as the size change you need to use stretch ZONES not the bounding box. Zones are set at two points, stretching will only happen between those points. Check in the help.

I have tried to use the stretch zones to the same affect. I believe the issue is from the combination of using the stretch planes or zones and setting bounding box spacing to something other than 0". The bounding box spacing has to be set at something else in order to push the face frame bead out beyond the stiles/rails of the cabinet doors.

 

3 hours ago, GeneDavis said:

Here is a 5-piece door I made with solids for the perimeter and a countertop with perimeter molding for the center.  The molding emulates a 30 degree cope/stick detail.  The kitchen in the pic also has this detail for all the lower drawerfronts, with a separate symbol used for those.  See the stretch zones?  I included a catalog cut from Walzcraft to show what I used as a reference, the cut showing one of their many many door profiles.

I prefer not to use solids for the stiles/frames because the wall cabinet system allows for material UV mapping to remain accurate, whereas with solids you have to use two materials just for the frame of the door and rotate one for correct orientation. It also allows for a very quick system that I can make custom doors extremely quickly with, which is something I need to do regularly as we specialize in cabinetry. Again, stretch zones vs. planes does not seem to be the solution here due to the need for different bounding box spacing.

[MarkMc]

5 hours ago, MollyNDG said:

The bounding box spacing has to be set at something else

Perhaps I don't understand what you are looking for so maybe provide an image. I can say is I have never needed to use the bounding box for a standard cabinet door symbol that was being used as a door.

 

On 6/3/2026 at 4:02 PM, MollyNDG said:

I need an inset door with a face frame bead, and I’m trying to fold that into the same setup.

I mentioned that back around X6 several of us on the forum tried to create beaded frames just using a single door. We could make it work sometimes but gave up. If you are trying to add to the cabinet box face frame consider how it is built in real life. 

Below are a couple of variations on what I think you are after: a simple beaded inset side, beaded frame with standard opening, the double beads. All of these will resize correctly in any direction.

 

To demonstrate that the cabinet door style is independent of the beading, which is part of the box faces; I dropped a door symbol from the library set to scope by plan.

Edited Thursday at 08:49 PM by MarkMc

[MarkMc]

 If you don't need the door to operate you can just make it as a door and use it as a side panel inset. Stretch zones work for that, no change to bounding box.

Edited 21 hours ago by MarkMc

[GeneDavis]

Regardless of how you make the door symbol, show us, just as Mark and I showed you, how you have it stretch-zoned.

[MollyNDG]

@MarkMcand @GeneDavis, thank you both for providing multiple answers and tips for this! In playing around more, I realized the issue I was actually having was in the intermediate step of creating the Side Panel - Inset door out of the countertop. That piece needs to have the bounding box offsets in order to push the bead outside of the frame that comes from the wall cabinet (in the next step). This wall cabinet then, when resized, does some weird things. But I could just use the size I created the panel for to create the door then the resize planes (you don't even need zones for it to work) work just fine. The wall cabinet step is important to maintain the UV map orientation and not have to mess around with rotated material. I don't think what I was trying to achieve translates well in words, so I did a quick video (no audio) to show. I think it will work well as a quick system to make custom doors with a bead without fussing with molding polylines and other bits. You just put in the inner door profile you need, then make your symbols. 

 

Video is too large to attach, here's the link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/2cra9tm4pem5mfutgyxt3/AB_lxruRoOaSJ_sFC-HmP7Q?rlkey=teb0umvx6xzys51c3x5xih099&dl=0 

Edited 15 hours ago by MollyNDG

[GeneDavis]

Here is what I think is considered a pretty standard look in inset-fronts cabinetry, and the term "beaded" applies to the frame and not the door or drawerfronts.  This very common style almost always has no beads around door perimeter.  I don't know of a Chief hack that can do the frames like this in 3D.

 

  

 

Here is a Chiefer showing how he does the "look" of a frame bead in 2D.  He ends up with bead-on-bead, the bead along door and d'front edges hugging the frame beads.  I've never seen that in a showroom or catalog.

 

I don't do any inset stuff, but here is what popped into my head.  Specify your offsets so as to have a 3/8" margin between faceframe openings and the door or d'front, and make and place a 3D bead molding tight to the openings, sized to leave the 3mm margins.  Tedious, but if you gotta have it, you gotta do it.

 

Consider doing your work in Cabinetvision or Mosaik, both of which have what you want.

 

[MarkMc]

1 hour ago, MollyNDG said:

I don't think what I was trying to achieve translates

Well I didn't get it until the end of the video. I may still not get it but those don't look to be inset cabinets to me.

What I see is a full overlay door with a framing bead around the panel and a second bead around the door.

That can all be done from a countertop. Set both moldings as needed, one around the panel for a framing bead, a second one offset from the panel leaving an empty space as wide as the separations of symbol cabinet (the one you make the final door from)

When you convert that to a cabinet door set the stretch planes OUTSIDE of the symbol to prevent it from resizing. Then a little math, offset the z axis to account for the one molding and the cabinet seperation. Check the final size of that door symbol (I call these the wainscot panels), adjust the cabinet size so that you wainscot to the framing bead inside the opening and you second outer bead will then fit around the wall cabinet. Then convert that to a door symbol, set stretch zones; adjust materials (I usually do that after symbol is in library)

Plan attached with all the stages

 

 

1 hour ago, GeneDavis said:

I don't know of a Chief hack that can do the frames like this in 3D.

I have several sets of plans for that with different beads. Pretty complicated to make to begin with.

Two beads.zip

Edited 13 hours ago by MarkMc

[MollyNDG]

49 minutes ago, GeneDavis said:

Here is what I think is considered a pretty standard look in inset-fronts cabinetry, and the term "beaded" applies to the frame and not the door or drawerfronts.  This very common style almost always has no beads around door perimeter.  I don't know of a Chief hack that can do the frames like this in 3D.

 

Here is a Chiefer showing how he does the "look" of a frame bead in 2D.  He ends up with bead-on-bead, the bead along door and d'front edges hugging the frame beads.  I've never seen that in a showroom or catalog.

 

I don't do any inset stuff, but here is what popped into my head.  Specify your offsets so as to have a 3/8" margin between faceframe openings and the door or d'front, and make and place a 3D bead molding tight to the openings, sized to leave the 3mm margins.  Tedious, but if you gotta have it, you gotta do it.

 

Consider doing your work in Cabinetvision or Mosaik, both of which have what you want.

 

I do understand that “beaded” refers to the face frame. We actually specialize in very high-end, highly custom cabinetry, so I’m pretty familiar with the construction side of things. 

What I’m working toward here is more about workflow and efficiency within Chief. I’m using a door symbol to generate the bead so I can create a simple, repeatable system for building custom doors quickly. Since we deal with a wide variety of door styles, having something dynamic and easy to apply makes a big difference.

I’ve been able to get this working, and it’s turned into a pretty streamlined process that only takes a few steps to produce a door with the frame bead already integrated. It also avoids having to manually place individual molding profiles, which can get pretty tedious.

I shared a short video in my previous reply showing how it works, and I'll add my working plan as well if anyone wants to dig into it—it’s a bit tricky to fully explain just in text. There are instructions for the system on the elevation. 

.

WORKING 2.0.plan

[MollyNDG]

4 minutes ago, MarkMc said:

Well I didn't get it until the end of the video. I may still not get it but those don't look to be inset cabinets to me.

 

 

You are correct Mark, those are not set up as inset cabinets - I should have set that up before taking a video, my apologies, I was focused on the doors alone. I have fixed that in the attached plan above. If you want to check out the system I set up, it makes creating new cabinet doors for beaded frames pretty simple. 

Edited 13 hours ago by MollyNDG

[GeneDavis]

The door is a 7/16" countertop, its three piece molding first a 2-1/4 stile/rail with eased edges at face side, next a 1/8" rectangular profile done in insulation air gap (i.e. no material), last a 1/4" bead alongside is a 1/16" quirk detail.  The door is inset into the 1.5" width faceframe with margins of zero.  The door symbol is readily resizable and is dependent on cabinet face specs.  I did not do a slab d'front for this exercise.

 

 

See the problem when you do the elevation camera?  Chief's line weights give it away, also the door operation lines.

 

 

Here is a catalog cut from Walzcraft, from whom we source fronts and trim and d'boxes for most jobs, this page is in their Signature Series catalog.  You can see the d'fronts are inset into frames, the frames not beaded, but the doors, stiles and rail mitered, have beads both sides of the perimeter members.  I'd find it rather exhausting to have to model jobs with elements like this, just to satisfy the wants of interior designers.

 

 

 

[MarkMc]

 

1 hour ago, MollyNDG said:

If you want to check out the system I set up, it makes creating new cabinet doors for beaded frames pretty simple.

I watched the first video, I understand your system. Thanks but I'm covered.

 I mentioned I have plans for beaded insets cabinets with 1/4", 3/8, Elite Cove, Square and French Inset Beads.

The beading is part of the cabinet any door can be used with them with a single click, usually globally. Picture below shows a plan of the 1/4" bead cabinets where I dropped new doors/drawers from my user library into them individually in a few minutes. 

 Just doors, I'm set, have made every door symbol I used for more than a decade. 

 

12 minutes ago, GeneDavis said:

See the problem when you do the elevation camera?

Just for you Gene from my beaded inset. Line wts could maybe be better ( I ought to correct the right hand door bead  but door swing is correct, 3D is correct and doors open with bead staying put. Note have the beads to mitered is not worth the trouble since you need an altered bounding box which is unreliable.

Edited 11 hours ago by MarkMc

[MollyNDG]

1 hour ago, GeneDavis said:

The door is a 7/16" countertop, its three piece molding first a 2-1/4 stile/rail with eased edges at face side, next a 1/8" rectangular profile done in insulation air gap (i.e. no material), last a 1/4" bead alongside is a 1/16" quirk detail.  The door is inset into the 1.5" width faceframe with margins of zero.  The door symbol is readily resizable and is dependent on cabinet face specs.  I did not do a slab d'front for this exercise.

 

I like this solution, stacking the moldings in the countertop itself to achieve the profile, frame, space (you can actually just offset the outer bead and don't need a molding for this for one less layer) and then the bead. It works well for painted cabinets, or mitered doors but unfortunately won't work for mortise and tenon doors or french cut miter doors because of the uv map for wood grain. See the left door in this image.

 
The line weights and door indicators don't cause an issue for me, as most elevations will be far enough back that you won't clock the indicators going into that 1/4" space, but if that's going to cause issues I can see not using it. And for me, the line weight just shows there is a bead on the face frame which is pretty helpful for us as we acknowledge large cabinet orders, it's a good visual reminder (which is a big part of why I need to create these accurately). 

Lucky for me, I am the interior designer so creating the system to stream line making all doors and beaded frame cabinets directly benefits me and my work. I can see not wanting to go into such detail for someone else though.

54 minutes ago, MarkMc said:

 I mentioned I have plans for beaded insets cabinets with 1/4", 3/8, Elite Cove, Square and French Inset Beads.

It sounds like you've got a great system dialed in, I'd be interested to know how you have the bead directly incorporated into the frame. The downfall of how I'm going about it is that the bead will go with the door when opened, which isn't something that affects me but could easily be a deal breaker. 

Edited 10 hours ago by MollyNDG